Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 60.2: The Victor and Ashes

The hero Cira was adored by her companions like the youngest little sister of the group. After all, she was a country girl who had never even held a sword or staff before. On top of that, she was the youngest among the current generation of heroes.

For such a Cira to grow this much and achieve the first Demon King kill of this generation—something no one else had managed yet—nothing could make them happier.

While still keeping an eye on the Demon King’s suspended corpse, they first celebrated the victory and ruffled Cira’s hair vigorously.

“That last move—was it something you came up with on the spot!?”

“M-My magic lacks breakthrough power, so Haro-sama always told me to think of ways to use the enemy’s magic against them… Th-The specific method was improvised…”

“Then that’s your achievement, isn’t it? Cira, you’ve really grown up.”

“Still, the spell the two of us together couldn’t stop—you stopped it so easily… It’s kind of demoralizing!”

“S-Sorry… but I had practiced it beforehand with Haro-sama!”

“Man, what an amazing master.”

The youngest sister, who secretly enjoyed the older siblings’ over-the-top praise, looked up at the Demon King’s corpse a little later, following their example.

It was a plant-type Demon King with exceptional vitality; it wouldn’t be strange if it suddenly revived the moment they let their guard down.

They watched closely with that thought in mind, but it seemed to be needless worry. The Demon King was definitely dead. After all, its magic stone—the organ of magical power—had been removed. Even if it were somehow still alive, a fairy, a magical lifeform, could not possibly move without it.

On the other hand, the thorn spears severed from the Demon King still throbbed faintly, showing traces of lingering life.

“Th-That vitality is incredible…”

“If it has magical power, maybe it could live forever. Considering that chant and its fairy origin, it makes sense. Even the magical armament made for us is probably taking advantage of that trait, right?”

At Mizaela the mage’s words, Cira looked down at her own armament and agreed that yes, it was true.

This magical armament too was kept alive in a state where growth had been halted, and even now, with the main body—the Demon King—dead, it showed no sign of decaying. The detached parts continued to live through magical power. That seemed to be its nature.

Which meant the thorn fragments that had already parasitized the residents and livestock might still be rampaging through the town even now.

There was still plenty of cleanup left; they couldn’t just bask in victory—Cira stood up.

“You’ve already done the biggest job. You can rest a little longer, you know?”

“N-No, I can’t… I have to save as many people in the town as possible, even if it’s just one more.”

Mizaela answered “You’re right” and gave Cira’s back a light pat.

Everyone stood up, and they immediately decided to return to the front lines of the Demon King’s invasion.

That was when it happened.

The sky shone black.

“…Wh-What?”

Cira was the first to notice.

It was a strange presence. And it carried an overwhelmingly bad premonition.

Black light fell from the night sky—

It plummeted straight toward where Cira and the others stood, and at that moment, she realized the black light was “heat.”

It was hot. Scorching heat was falling.

But by the time she realized it, it was already too late—

“—!?”

Right after, a massive black flame incinerated the entire area.

One question still remained unresolved.

It concerned the “movement” of the Demon King of Thorns.

According to the observatory’s information from half a month earlier, the Demon King had been in a completely different location. Yet for some reason it had made a mysterious great migration, resulting in Cira and her party running straight into it in what should have been a safe hunting forest.

Why had the Demon King of Thorns moved?

Stating the conclusion: the correct answer was that the “Demon King of Thorns” had been fleeing.

The “Demon King of Thorns” had been running away.

Chased by something that threatened her very existence, she had fled her home.

But threats capable of menacing a Demon King were not so common.

The things that could become threats were, first, a hero—and second—

Another Demon King.

—The black flames burned everything.

It was an utterly merciless strike that indiscriminately scorched the entire surrounding area.

At the center of the impact site, a crater-like depression had formed. A man rose slowly to his feet there.

The man was an oni.

He had gray hair, gray skin, and cloudy white eyes. From the small pair of horns growing from his forehead, black flames burst out uncontrollably.

With an expression that was hard to tell whether he was laughing or raging—an angry grin of sorts—the oni declared in a loud voice right from the start:

“Well now, this is a problem!”

“The ‘Demon King of Thorns’… I was planning to keep inviting her to join the Demon King Alliance for a while longer, but she’s already been killed! It seems an exceptional hero has appeared in this era!”

—The Demon King of Ashes.

Two hundred years ago, even the heroes of the previous generation could not kill him and had no choice but to reluctantly seal him away—an extraordinary monster of that caliber.

With the intruder’s arrival, the battle tumbled into its second round.